Celebrating Art, Culture,
History, and Diversity
in Lowell, MA With Epic Murals From Local and Visiting Artists.
ArtUp Lowell is
a community-wide placemaking initiative that funds, enhances, and leverages Lowell's artistic, creative, and cultural assets through permanent, place-based installations that enhance the city’s public space.
Since the summer of 2021, ArtUp Lowell has collaborated with local youth, community-based organizations, and local and international artists to bring 15 permanent large-scale murals to 4 neighborhoods across the city that celebrate cultural diversity.
ARTS & CULTURE TRAIL:
Otro Rumbo
Athenian Corner Restaurant 207 Market Street
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Instagram: @zayasart
David ZAYAS is a fine artist and muralist from Puerto Rico. In 2012, he created the UN ZAYAS POR DIA project, reaching countries such as Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, and the USA. Society is the main theme of his work, in which he portrays through images of children, women, and animals.
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“My inspiration for this piece is the Woman and her moment in this historical conjuncture. Her just claim for rights is one of the most momentous moments, because a worldwide consensus has already been achieved through the internet. The Woman has always shown us a way. We have ignored this path forever and it is transformed. The woman chooses to walk on the chairs in the eternal search for a correct path. The old chairs represent the new way, they are no longer used to sit and rest. They are submerged in water to represent a complex path with few options. The Rooster is waiting on the back of one of the chairs. As in all the pieces where he appears, he represents bravery and fights to the death. It is one of the symbologies that I use very frequently in my work. In a way, it represents the attitude and spirit of the main character." - David Zayas 2021
EL SONIDO DE MI PATRIA
Community Teamwork, Inc. Youth Opportunity Center 167 Dutton Street
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Instagram: @angurria
Evaristo Angurria is a Dominican fine artist, graphic designer, and activist with 20+ years of experience in the advertisement industry. Angurria came to Lowell last summer to paint his mural, Sound of My Patria, in the Gates Bock Garden.
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This piece is a part of a larger series that represents the natural beauty of Dominican women and their hair and reclaims the cultural legacy of the Black and Afro-Latinx peoples who once resided in this space. The series also honors his own mother, who owned a hair salon in the Dominican Republic, where he grew up and watched her work as a stylist his whole life.
Mesa
Mahoney Hall, UMass Lowell 870 Broadway St, Lowell
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Instagram: @sophytuttle
Sophy Tuttle is an interdisciplinary artist who works to connect artists, activists, and scientists to tackle today's ecological issues. Sophy's work focuses on the natural world, our place in it, and the conflicts and collaborations we find ourselves in every day with nature.
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Measuring at 120 feet wide and 40 feet tall, the “MESA” art mural covers the front wall of Mahoney Hall on UMass Lowell’s South Campus. The Boston-based artist created this mural in alignment with the common theme of nature in her art pieces. In reference to the acronym for the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act, “MESA” features several endangered species such as the showy lady’s slipper and blue-spotted salamander.
CHROME COBITO
aka“Chrome Crab”
University of Massachusetts Lowell Pinanski Hall, North Campus 205 Riverside Street
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Instagram: @bikismo
Joshua Santos Rivera, aka Bikismo, studied at the Escuela de artes plásticas de Puerto Rico, where he mastered the hyperrealism technique using spray paint. Throughout his career, he’s had the opportunity to paint for clients such as Michael Jordan, Leo Messi, Daddy Yankee, Ozuna, Bad Bunny, Wisin, Adidas, the Crown Prince of Dubai Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and many more.
APSARA
Middlesex Community College Derby Park 88 Middle Street
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Instagram: @mattayafitts
Mattaya Fitts is a visual artist born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. Mattaya's practice encompasses painting, drawing, and photography within both studio and mural disciplines. Using form and color, she creates a visual vocabulary that addresses the complexities of living in a world of dualities. Mattaya's work appears as dreamlike images in which fiction and reality meet, tropes merge, meanings shift, past memories and the present fuse.
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This mural is a representation and celebration of both Mattaya's and the city's Cambodian culture. The piece, which is named after the classical dance, Apsara, depicts a woman performing the dance in traditional dress.
I AM WOMAN
Middlesex Community College Derby Park 88 Middle Street
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Instagram: @quest.nine
Kori ‘Q’ Thomas, aka Quest Nine, is an artist and designer from New England. Her style is influenced by her passion for street art from when she was living in Detroit, Michigan during her 20s. As a traveling artist, she has completed murals in Northern and Southern California, the Pacific Northwest, Flint & Detroit Michigan, Boston, and Montreal. You may recognize her work from the concrete street barriers around Lowell.
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“‘I am Woman’ represents the strength in femininity, diversity, and the multicultural community of Lowell. Each piece of our social identities and culture influences the energy and community around us, symbolized by the glitch. As women, there is a sense of chaos in today’s social climate, but we stand stronger when we stand together.” - Quest Nine 2022
THE OTHER ME
EL OTRO YO / LA OTRA YO
Middlesex Community College Derby Park 88 Middle Street
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Instagram: @era.sgx
Andrew Tricoche, aka ERA, is a Puerto Rican graphic designer, illustrator, and public artist who was born and raised in the city of Lowell. Andrew, who studied graphic design at Montserrat College of Art, says his work is inspired by the music, urban art, fashion, and culture that surrounds him every day.
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“This piece represents the dance through the balance of good and bad. Life. A 2-headed serpent, 2 sides of the same coin.” - Andrew Tricoche, 2022
DREAM, HUNT, MAKE
Middlesex Community College Cowan Center Building 33 Kearney Square
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Instagram: @fonkiworld
FONKi is a Cambodian artist from Montreal, Canada. He was born in France to parents who were refugees of the Khmer Rouge genocide in the 1970s. At 15 years old, FONKi discovered graffiti and he gradually grew into one of Montreal's most prominent figures in the new generation of street artists. Today, his work can be found across the world, from the United States and Mexico to Vietnam, Cambodia, and beyond.
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Within the eyes of the Dreamer, lies the keys of the future,
Sweetness and bitterness you will taste,
Focus in the present, you must,
Educate yourself, you will.
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Obsessively, his dream, the Hunter chases,
Darkness and light you will meet,
Wise with knowledge, you must be,
Continue flying, you will.
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Under the Maker’s hands, life takes color.
Creation is complex,
An Art it is, to make it simple,
To build, pure must be your intentions.
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A Sweet Dreamer, Wise Hunter & Pure
Maker you shall become. - FONKi, 2022
Healing
Eliot Church 6 Favor St, Lowell
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Instagram: @bryanbeyung
Bryan is a visual artist from Montreal who was born to a Chinese-Cambodian family. Inspired by his past as a graffiti artist and graphic designer, he developed an intuitive pictorial approach where raw lines, flat colors, and realistic shapes are deconstructed to give a second look at images, ideas, and memories.
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Whole. Broken. Fixed.
Breakage as an opportunity for a new start. Exposing the flaws, the scars, the imperfect and making them part of the story. Painted in the Back Central neighborhood in Lowell, this piece speaks of human fragility. The wall is part of the Eliot Church, which has become a point of refuge for all who are unhoused.
RAYO FELIZ
Middlesex Community College 24 Howe St, Lowell
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Instagram: @golden305
Cristhian Saravia, Golden305, was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and is an artist and curator based out of Wynwood, Florida. Golden305 became a graffiti artist at an early age. As the movement continues to evolve, he has become one of Florida's most renowned street artists.
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Highly influential and specific in technique, application, and design, the Golden305 message channels intentional excitement, a constant evaluation of living with purpose. In Lowell, he brings this energy and intent to the communities surrounding Middlesex Community College, and as always, has fueled a creative spark for yet another neighborhood.
Penny’s Mural
Sophia's Greek Pantry North 479 Market St.
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Eric Allshouse, Lead Educator
Christian Ang, LHS Junior
Ava Rockwell-Ingram, LHS Junior
Nev Morin, LHS Junior
Branden Bonner, LHS Senior
Pharrell Peau, c/o 2023
Raphael Freitas, LHS Senior
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"This mural is inspired by Greek culture since Sophia’s Greek Pantry is full of delicious Greek food and desserts. We wanted to show the history and origin of Greek culture. In the composition, you will find some small details, such as Icarus in the background flying too close to the sun and learning from his mistake, a myth we all showed interest in the rocky road leading from the Medusa section through the rest of the mural is a reference to ancient Greek roads, and many Bougainvillea vines and flowers climbing on the pillars as seen in the Greek island of Santorini."
- LHS Student Artists
The Bee
University of Massachusetts Lowell University Crossing 220 Pawtucket Street
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Instagram: @adam_oday
Adam O’Day is a painter based in Abington, MA. O’Day received a BFA in Illustration/Design from The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University and has exhibited his work in Boston, Lowell, New York City, Atlanta, London, New London, CT, and beyond.
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Instagram: @felipeortizart
Colombian artist Felipe Ortiz focuses on the practice of painting, from traditional easel painting to murals and public installations. Since earning his BFA in 2D Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2009, Felipe has participated in numerous private and public exhibitions.
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“For the UML Campus, this building serves as the hub for student success & activities. When I think of the themes of Learning and Collaboration, the first thing that comes to mind is the concept of bees. They, adapt, learn and collaborate together as a unit.”
- Adam O'Day, 2023
